History
The Greeks knew of Bushehr by Mezambria during the battles of Nearchus. A French excavating team however in 1913 determined the origin of Bushehr to date back to the Elamite Empire. A city there, known as Lyan, contained a temple that was designed to protect the compound from naval attacks. Its remains can still be seen today 10 kilometers south of the present city of Bushehr.
Marco Polo describes this region as part of the Persian province of Shabankareh
A key turning point in the history of Bor event of significance is known to have taken place in this region until the arrival of the European colonialists in the 16th century.
The Portuguese, invaded the city of Bushehr in 1506 and remained there until Shah Abbas Safavi defeated and liberated the Persian Gulf region of their presence. By 1734, Bushehr had once again risen to prominence due to Nadir Shah of the Afsharid dynasty, and his military policies in The Persian Gulf.
Bushehr was selected by Nadir to be the central base of Nadir's Naval fleet in the Persian Gulf. He thus changed the name of the city to Bandar e Nadiriyeh (Nadir's Port). He hired an Englishman by the name of John Elton to help build his fleet. Dutch accounts report his naval fleet to have amounted to 8000-10000 personnel as well as several ship construction installations.
After Nadir's death, the Dutch continued to have good commercial relations in Bushehr, until the British made their debut in Bushehr in 1763 by a contract they signed with Karim Khan of the Zand dynasty. By then, the city of Bushehr had become Iran's major port city in the Persian Gulf. By the Qajar era, Britain, Norway, Russia, Italy, France, Germany, and the Ottomans had diplomatic and commercial offices there, with Britain steadily gaining a foothold in the area. Close to 100 British ships are reported to have docked at the port city every year during the Qajar era.
Read more about this topic: Bushehr Province
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“When the history of guilt is written, parents who refuse their children money will be right up there in the Top Ten.”
—Erma Brombeck (20th century)